— 120 — 



found chiefly in depths of 70 — 130 fathoms. This distribution was however not quite 

 uniform, as some younger specimens were also found in deeper water. 



It is extremely interesting, that he was able to prove by means of marking 

 experiments, that the larger fish move from the coasts or from the fjords 

 out into deeper water and that they also go from one fjord into others^ 



■ We thus have quite satisfactory proof of the continuity of the stock, from shallow 

 water out to the depths which we called in the second chapter the slopes of the coastal 

 banks towards the deep-sea margin. 



The investigations in the part of the Norwegian Sea which embraces the Norwegian 

 coastal banks and coastal waters have proved much more difficult. Above all we meet 

 here the difficulty, that the nature of the bottom practically nowhere permits the use of the 

 trawl. The fishing must be carried on by means of seines, lines of various kinds and 

 trap nets; the catches are therefore so different that they cannot be compared either with 

 one another or with the catches in the North Sea. 



We saw in the second chapter that the young of the cod were to be found in quan- 

 tities in the strand-region of the Norwegian coast and far to the north of the spawning- 

 places. The later young stages also occurred in not inconsiderable quantities, especially 

 in the Barentz Sea in deeper water. Quantities of the cod grow up on the whole Nor- 

 wegian coast, but owing to the so very different kinds of water the conditions of life are 

 also much more varied than in the North Sea and at Iceland and this results in the stock 

 of cod having a special character. To explain this more clearly we may give here some 

 examples and begin with the coastal waters. 



As is well-known, the Norwegian coasts are remarkable for their numerous fjords, 

 islands, sounds and bays. Through this characteristic^- formation the already very extended 

 coastal line naturally becomes much longer. This gives an enormously extensive littoral 

 region covered with Laminaria, Fucus and Zostera. Here we find great masses of the 

 o-group of several species of gadoids, especially cod and coalfish. Within recent years a 

 cod fishery with trap nets has developed in the strand-region. 



This kind of fishing has been carried on for many years on the Skager Rak coast and 

 in the shallow Danish seas, and the Norwegian fisheries investigations have consequently 

 made further experiments with the trap nets at suitable places and thereby proved that 

 numbers of cod can be taken in the strand-region as far as and including Nordland. 

 These "trap net cod" chiefly consist of the sizes from 30—60 cm. and thus correspond 

 to the sizes which Schmidt gives as characteristic for the depth of 12 fathoms and which 

 Helland-Hansen also discusses in his paper on the North Sea. See the curve, fig. 49 

 above, which shows that the larger specimens are very rare and that the medium sizes 

 constitute the main proportion. As good catches have been made with the trap nets 

 from the Skager Rak as far as Nordland, wherever the experiment was undertaken at 



I JOHS. Schmidt, "Marking experiments on plaice and cod in Icelandic waters". Meddelelser fra Kom- 

 missionen for Havundersögelser. Serie Fiskeri. Bd. II, Nr, 6. 1907. 



